Coping Mechanisms
by scintillating stars
Summary: valentine's day, community service, and paper hearts. AU. a belated valentine's story for the valentine's exchange '14; for frays / nalanda -


a/n: for frays / nalanda for the 2014 valentine's day exchange. my sincere apologies for the lateness, i did my best i promise. i haven't written for ff in almost two years, so sorry if this is awful / way too OOC… i'm not very connected to the clique characters anymore, not gonna lie. but i hope you enjoy this nonetheless :)

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**Coping Mechanisms**

Massie Block was never one to mull over the little details. Things happen, people come and go, and that's sort of it, y'know? But there was always one thing that Massie couldn't just brush off - her parents. One would think that going to one of the best prep schools in the country would get her parents off her back, but nope, Massie's parents were just that certifiably insane.

Massie sighed, learning further into her purple futon, as if that would get her away from her mom's taunting voice emanating from her phone. "Mom, I have a biology test tomorrow, can you please just not do this right now?"

"Massie, you know we just want what is best for you -"

"Yes, yes, and apparently you have also decided what is best for me is to apply early action to Harvard, even though both of us clearly know that I'm not going to get in."

"You don't know that, you can't go into the process with that kind of attitude. If you don't go to Harvard, why did we waste two-hundred thousand dollars on your high school education, Massie? Could you be a little more grateful?"

Massie rolled her eyes. "Okay Mom, I guess I'll do whatever you want." Not.

Massie's bejeweled iPhone 5S bleeped as she hung up on her ever so ridiculous mom. Her parents seemed to have this irrational admiration of Harvard and would stop at nothing for Massie to go there… Massie, however, dreamt of going to Stanford, where she would just be a short drive away from watching the beautiful ocean waves crash onto the shore, not to mention warm weather all year round - snow is so overrated.

"Hey Mass!" Claire, Massie's roommate, all but skipped into their room and plopped down at her desk chair, smiling ear-to-ear as per usual.

"How was the library?" Massie inquired casually, hoping that Claire would not detect her distress.

"Good! It was so hard to find a room, but Cam and I got a lot of work done." Cam always made Claire so happy, Massie couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

"Uh-huh. 'Work.'" Massie joked, with air quotes and all.

"I swear!" Claire grinned. "Enough about me, how has your night been going?" Claire looked at Massie intently, sensing that something may be wrong. They weren't roommates because they were strangers, after all.

Massie sighed - she just couldn't lie to Claire. "My mom called again… it was pretty bad." Massie began to tear up, thinking about the dreadful and unnecessary phone call again.

"Aw, Mass…" Claire joined Massie on the futon and hugged her best friend. "It'll all be okay, I promise."

"I know it will be in the end, but I just don't know how to deal with them until then." Massie realized that she did believe that she'd be alright eventually, but the process was the hard part.

"I know it's hard, Mass, but all you have to do is find a coping mechanism. Find something that helps you release the tension, takes your mind off of your problems, helps your mental state in any way at all. In fact, figure out a few coping mechanisms."

Massie looked at Claire skeptically. "It works! My coping mechanisms are chocolate, Gossip Girl… and Cam… well okay mainly Cam," Claire admitted.

Massie rolled her eyes, groaned, and chucked a fluffy ladybug pillow pet at Claire. "Well Claire, not all of us are that lucky."

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Massie kicked at the snow at the side of the road as she walked toward the community service office - New England weather really did suck. And so did boarding school: after a long day of classes, Massie still had to do two hours of community service to fulfill her graduation requirement. Granted, the community service was playing with underprivileged elementary school students from a nearby city, but it was still an obligation.

"Fuck," Massie swore as she nearly wiped out on the black ice in front of the stairs to the community service office. She felt a strong hand grip her elbow and jumped, before realizing it was just Derrick.

"You alright there, Block?" Derrick asked, with his favorite smirk on his face, but his eyes filled with genuine concern.

"Yeah, yeah, not all of us are as coordinated as you, Mr. Star-Soccer-Player." Massie brushed herself off and headed up the stairs, with Derrick close behind her.

"No need to be sassy," Derrick responded with a playful shove.

The two stumbled into the room and joined the roomful of preppy teenagers mingling before the children arrived. "What are we doing today?" Massie asked, not sure who to direct the question at.

Kristen smiled and responded, "Dylan and I are in charge today. Since it's Valentine's Day, we thought we could make some valentine's cards with them, then decorate some cookies?"

"Sounds good," Massie said as she plopped herself down onto one of the couches.

A bus pulled in beside the building and a multitude of children began filing into the room, full of energy and stories of the past week to tell their Briarwood buddies.

Massie stood up and found the little girl she usually worked with, a shy fourth grader named Claudia. "Hey Claudia! How was your week?"

"Good! We got chocolate in school today and my mom let me paint my nails pink for Valentine's Day!" Claudia grinned, pulling Massie toward the table where they usually sat.

"Ooh, lucky you!" Massie smiled at the girl's enthusiasm. "We're going to make valentine's cards today, do you have a valentine?"

Claudia looked down bashfully. "Maybe? Not quite…"

"Oh my gosh, spill! Tell me everything."

"Well there's this boy in my class… his name is Todd. He's really cute and we do our math homework together sometimes," Claudia gushed.

Massie couldn't help but giggle. "That's adorable! Okay, I will help you make a beautiful card for Todd."

The pair gathered some construction paper, glue, and markers. Claudia decided she wanted a pink paper heart in the middle of a red card, with heart shaped glitter bordering the heart. Massie helped Claudia construct a cliché "Roses are red, violets are blue" poem to write in the card, and before long they were munching on heart shaped cookies together.

The bright yellow schoolbus pulled up to the building again, and the kids piled onto the bus, their hands full with excessively decorated cards and sugar cookies. Massie let out a breath she didn't know she was holding - her day was finally actually over.

Massie walked around the room aimlessly, picking up various pieces of trash the children had left behind and pushing chairs in around the table.

"Hey, Block!" Massie turned around to almost walk straight into Derrick. Caught off guard, she tried to move backward, only to trip over her own feet. "Woah Block. Today's just not your day for staying on your feet, huh?" Derrick smiled humorously, revealing his dimples.

"I guess not," Massie laughed at her own clumsiness.

"Anyway, I made you something," Derrick said excitedly as he pulled out something he had been holding behind his back.

Confused, Massie took his offering and realized it was a valentine's card he had made for her. The pink construction paper opened to a pop-up heart with a message inscribed on it.

_Dear Block,_

_Do you have a band-aid?_

_'Cause I think I scraped my knee falling for you._

_Love,_

_Derrick_

Massie laughed, "That's ironic. I'm the one falling all over the place today. But hey, cheesy and classic, I like it."

"I thought you would." Derrick grinned proudly.

Massie would never tell anyone (okay, maybe Claire), but Derrick's juvenile efforts had actually made her day, if not her week. And as he flipped his blonde hair out of his eyes, still grinning at her, Massie couldn't help but wonder if she was closer to discovering her coping mechanism than she had thought.

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a/n: happy belated valentine's day, everyone! tried to incorporate my prompts of paper hearts, sea water, and glitter, along with the angst + fluff request - massie's parental problems aren't quite angsty but almost? hope y'all enjoyed reading this - show some love in the reviews (:


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